nuffield design & technology ks3 teacher’s guide · nuffield secondary d&t 3 1the promise...

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�Nuffield Secondary D&T www.secondarydandt.org

Nuffield Design & Technology

KS3 Teacher’s Guide

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�Nuffield Secondary D&T www.secondarydandt.org

Contents

Chapter �: The promise of deisgn and technology 3

Chapter �: Teaching capability

�.� The Big Three 4

�.� On the website 4

�.3 Teaching Resource Tasks 5

�.4 Teaching Case Studies �3

�.5 Teaching Capability Tasks �5

�.6 Reviewing progress through a Capability Task ��

�.7 Using the Self-assessment Sheets �4

�.8 Using Chooser Charts �6

2.9TheNuffieldNotebook 27

Chapter 3: Planning for capability (separate download) �9

Chapter 4: Assessing capability (separate download) 34

Chapter 5: Looking sideways in the curriculum (separate download) 45

Chapter 6: The ICT dimension (separate download) 53

Chapter 7: Using time in different ways (separate download) 55

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3Nuffield Secondary D&T www.secondarydandt.org

The promise of design and technology1The promise of design and technology in the revised National Curriculum paints an impressive picture. The ‘importance of design and technology’ statement captures the essence of capability.

‘Design and technology prepares students to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changing technologies. They learn to think and intervene creatively to improve quality of life. The subject calls for students to become autonomous and creative problem solvers, as individuals and members of teams. They must look for needs, wants and opportunities and respond to them by developing a range of ideas and making products and systems. They combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, function and industrial practices. As they do so, they reflect on and evaluate past and present design and technology, its uses and effects. Through design and technology, all students can become discriminating and informed users of products, and become innovators.’

The key features imply:

• autonomy – students making decisions and taking action based on those decisions; the actions may require the sanction of the teacher but the aim is autonomy;

• creativity – students using their imaginations to produce outcomes that are both original and of value;

• problem solving – students able to find problems and work things out for themselves;

• as individuals and in working with others – students able to work on their own and also co-operatively;

• recognising and responding to needs, wants and opportunities – students will see the world as a place to be improved;

• producing products and ideas – students able to design what they want and then make their design;

• reflection and evaluation – students able to question their own work and that of others in ways which develop their appreciation of and sensitivity to a wide range of issues;

• discrimination – students able to make sound judgements based on reason;

• innovation – students with a positive attitude towards the new.

The sum of the above parts is impressive. The potential for learning and developing attitudes and skills for life is immense. Young people are invited to make a difference to the world. This is the promise of design and technology. The Nuffield Design & Technology Project has developed methods and proposed materials that empower teachers to meet this challenge and keep the promise.

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Teaching capability2.1 The Big Three

The Nuffield way suggests three teaching methods.

Resource Tasks – short practical activities to make students think and to help them to learn the knowledge and skills they need to design and make really well. Resource Tasks are useful for product analysis and focused practical tasks as required by the National Curriculum in Design and Technology.

Capability Tasks – designing and making a product that works. These build on the learning experience of Resource Tasks and Case Studies. Capability Tasks are the designing and making assignments required by the Design and Technology National Curriculum.

Case Studies – true stories about design and technology in the world outside school. Students learn the way firms and businesses design and manufacture goods and how goods are marketed and sold. They also learn about the impact that products have on the people who use them and the places where they are made.

All three types of learning activity are necessary, Resource Tasks and Case Studies put students on the road to success, demonstrated through the challenge set by the Capability Tasks. Key Stage 3 presents a great opportunity to build a wide skill and knowledge base. Each Capability Task is supported by Resource Tasks and Case Studies. This dynamic triangle offers a strong structure for progress.

2.2 On the website

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Capability Tasks

A menu of complete designing and making assignments, downloadable as photocopiable masters.

Resource Tasks

A menu of short tasks supplied as photocopieable masters to teach the substance of design and technology: design strategies, communication techniques, technical knowledge and understanding, making skills, commercial matters, health and safety.

Case Studies

Fourteen Case Studies for background reading to the Capability Tasks, downloadable as photocopiable masters.

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Student Review Sheet

A reminder of key questions at important stages in a Capability Task, down-loadable as photocopiable masters.

Chooser Charts

Seventeen charts providing information to help students make design decisions across all the focus areas, downloadable as photocopiable masters.

2.3 Teaching Resource Tasks

What will students learn?

Resource Tasks teach students these vital features of design and technology:• design strategies;• communication techniques;• making skills;• technical knowledge and understanding;• commercial matters.

They are abbreviated as follows.

SRTs are Strategy Resource Tasks.

CRTs are Communication Resource Tasks.

RMRTs are Resistant Material-based Resource Tasks.

TRTs are Textile-based Resource Tasks.

FRTs are Food-based Resource Tasks.

HSRTs are Health and Safety Resource Tasks.

Student Self-Assessment Sheets

Three forms to help students to consider their progress at the end of a Capability Task and to set targets, downloadable as photocopiable masters.

Glossary

Emboldened words in the Students Book are in the Glossary, which is download-

able as a photocopiable master. There is room in the Glossary for students to add

new words plus their meanings.

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MCRTs are Mechanical Control Resource Tasks.

ECRTs are Electrical/Electronic Control Resource Tasks.

CCRTs are Computer Control Resource Tasks.

What’s the style and range of teaming?

The style of the learning is active and responsive. Students have to explain, design, construct, investigate and test. The learning intention for any one task is narrow but some tasks meet several learning intentions.

What will students do?

The activities of the learning can be any of the following in any combination:• talking/listening;• writing;• drawing;• calculating;• representing data;• constructing in 2D and 3D.

A diet of Resource Tasks which lacked variety through leaning heavily towards one sort of activity would be demotivating. So it is important that there are both breadth and balance in the range of activities that students engage in through the Resource Tasks they tackle.

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How do I organise the classroom for Resource Tasks?

Follow these guidelines to ensure that Resource Task work is effective.

• Each student should have a copy of the instruction sheets.

• Each student should have a copy of any sheets that have to be filled in or cut up during the task. Make sure that some spares are available for mistakes.

• Allow sufficient time and, if necessary, deviate from the recommended time.

• Ensure that the required materials, tools and equipment are readily available.

• If necessary, go through the task with the class beforehand so that all students have clear targets for doing and writing.

• Once the students are tackling the task, support them by asking questions, giving assistance, looking at what they write and draw, and providing encouragement.

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Telling students why they do Resource Tasks

You will need to explain to students why you, as their teacher want them to do Resource Tasks. The explanation is simple. You can say something along the following lines to your class.

‘Through Resource Tasks you will learn all sorts of things which will help you when you come to design and make. The idea is that I help you a lot when you’re doing Resource Tasks so that when you work on a Capability Task (that’s designing and making something) you won’t need me to help you as much, or even at all. The plan is to spend a maximum of five weeks doing Resource Tasks, less if you can do them well and quickly, then we’ll spend seven weeks on the Capability Task so that you can show me just how good you are and how you can use what you’ve learned. Look at the chart over here and you’ll see that I’ve put the dates of the lessons that we’re doing for the different Resource Tasks leading up to the Capability Task and then all the lessons for the Capability Task. We can keep a check on our progress.’

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Each Resource Task is laid out as an instruction sheet like this:

It’s quite easy for you to customise the tasks to meet your specific requirements. If you want students to miss out a certain part, you can easily cover this before photocopying. If you want students to do part of the task for homework simply paste in a homework label before photocopying.

If you want students to spend longer than the time shown, then paste over a time that suits you. In fact you may wish to leave the time blank and discuss with the class what would be an appropriate amount of time to spend on the task.

It is, however, essential that Resource Task work has pace with clearly defined expectations as to the number of tasks to be tackled during a lesson or sequence of lessons. Of course, oral feedback from individual students to the rest of the class at key points during a Resource Task sequence is a powerful way to recapitulate and reinforce learning.

Progress through Resource Tasks

Students make progress by the learning that takes place through a sequence of Resource Tasks. It is important that the later tasks in the sequence are more demanding than the earlier tasks. There is a useful summary of the Resource Tasks on the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website. Each task shows the learning, the time required, the Capability Tasks it can support and the demand. Each Resource Task is given a star coding (*) to indicate how demanding it is: the more stars, the more demanding the task. Students make progress by working through the tasks, starting with * tasks and moving on to ** or *** tasks. Note,

Title

Instructions for recording work through drawing and writing

Code number – used to reference the task in the Student’s Book

Parts of the Student’s Book they may need to useTime the student should spend on the task

Statement of what the student will learn through doing the task

List of materials, components, tools and equipment needed

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�0Nuffield Secondary D&T www.secondarydandt.org

however, that you might reach a demanding task early in Key Stage 3 because it deals with an important idea that is revisited on several occasions. SRT 1 Writing design briefs and SRT 2 Specifying products are good examples of this.

Design strategies

OFSTED reports have made it clear that it is the area of designing that provides the greatest challenge for most students.

‘ ... in general students’ attainment in designing lags behind that in making This is because students are either not introduced to a sufficiently wide range of designing strategies in Key Stage 3 or are not taught to use them effectively.’

Office for Standards in Education, Secondary Education 1993—97, A Review of Secondary Schools in England, The Stationary Office 1998

The Strategy Resource Tasks have been developed specifically to deal with this issue. The tasks are grouped in the following six categories:• investigating a context, writing design briefs and specifications;• stimulating a wide range of ideas;• developing aesthetic capability;• modelling and testing ideas;• presentation skills;• evaluating products.

The Nuffield view is that it is best to adopt a co-ordinated approach across the faculty in the following way:

• all teachers are responsible for teaching generic design strategies;

• sets of generic design strategies are taught across the faculty according to the sequence of Capability Tasks (See Table 1 for an example);

• all teachers are aware of the design strategies that students have been taught;

• all teachers encourage students to make appropriate use of any of the strategies they have been taught during a Capability Task;

• all teachers help students to choose which strategies to use during a Capability Task.

In addition to the generic design strategies listed in Table 1 there are the following focus-area-specific Strategy Resource Tasks:

SRT 23 Drawing quick 3D views SRT 33 Using system diagrams SRT 24 Crating SRT 34 Understanding system interfaces SRT 25 Making things look solid SRT 35 Understanding feedback SRT 26 Using nets SRT 36 Using flow charts

Note that it is the way that students choose and use the strategies in Capability Tasks that reveals their design ability. As students progress they will need less help in choosing and using design strategies. Ultimately they will be able to decide for themselves which strategies to use and when. It is likely, however, that most students in Key Stage 3 will need at least some support in this area.

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Table 1: A suggested pattern for generic design Strategies Resource Tasks across Key Stage 3

Generic Strategies for Year 7

For the first Capability Task For the second Capability Task For the third Capability Task

SRT 1 Writing design briefs SRT 2 Specifying products SRT 8 Using image boards

SRT 21 Using simple shapes and guidelines

SRT 37 Evaluating outcomes – user trips

SRT 11 Brainstorming

SRT 12 Metamorphosis

SRT 22 Using grids – enlarging and reducing

SRT 29 Putting products onto backgrounds

SRT 17 Appreciating products – style

SRT 13 Pattern design

SRT 9 Choosing and manipulating images

SRT 10 Capturing and manipulating images

SRT 18 Appreciating products – colour

SRT 41 Cool or what? Developing your design vocabulary


For the first Capability Task For the second Capability Task For the third Capability Task

SRT 3 Selecting recording tools

SRT 14 Attribute analysis

SRT 19 Appreciating products – feel

SRT 5 Identifying needs and wants

SRT 16 Making random connections

SRT 28 Modelling with spreadsheets

SRT 40 Freehand product analysis


For the first Capability Task For the second Capability Task

SRT 4 Writing interview questions

SRT 15 Getting visual ideas from sections of pictures

SRT 30 Layout

SRT 32 Instructions

SRT 38 Evaluating outcomes – winners and losers

SRT 6 Writing a fuller specification

SRT 31 Graphs

SRT 39 Evaluating outcomes – Is it appropriate?

SRT 7 Research

SRT 27 Modelling with CAD

SRT 20 Appreciating products – harmony and scale

Communication techniques

If students are to communicate their design intentions to others, they need to develop a range of graphic and other techniques to achieve this- There is a set of Communication Resource Tasks for this purpose Good demonstration and the opportunity to practise are essential. Some of these techniques are formal and students need to learn and follow accepted procedures in order to produce good drawings. This is the case in orthographic projection. Clearly, it is important to begin by drawing simple things but, if possible, these should have some personal relevance. Other communication techniques are less formal, such as fashion drawing, and here it is important to recognise the validity of different drawing styles. Just as students all have distinctive handwriting styles so they have individual drawing styles. Initially, students may be reluctant to reveal these but with practice and encouragement they can develop good communication techniques which, where appropriate, have strong personal flair.

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Technical knowledge and understanding

If students are to gain technical knowledge and understanding through Resource Tasks and then use (and perhaps extend) this in Capability Tasks, it is important that you take into account the concepts required for such understanding and the level of demand placed on these concepts. The sequence of Resource Tasks that the students tackle will need to be organised so that the demand placed on the concepts becomes greater as their understanding and confidence grow.

A simple model for this development is as follows.• Begin by teaching a qualitative appreciation through Resource Tasks that give

familiarisation: for example, being able to recognise a gear train and know that you can use it to make a wheel rotate faster or slower.

• Develop this to qualitative application through Resource Tasks where students have to use this knowledge: for example, to use a gear train to get an increase in speed in a model roundabout.

• Move on to quantitative appreciation, acquired through a more demanding familiarisation task: for example, calculating some output speeds for given compound gear trains.

• Develop quantitative application acquired through Resource Tasks where students have to use this knowledge: for example, to design a gear train to give a particular speed for a given input in a mechanical toy.

The sequences of Resource Tasks enable this progression to be made in a range of areas of technical understanding as a means of providing students with a growing bank of technical knowledge and understanding. This enables them to produce technically more sophisticated solutions to the design problems they encounter in Capability Tasks.

Making skills

If students are to make what they design, it is important that they relate their designs to both their level of making skill and the range of making possibilities at their disposal. You need to be clear when to introduce making skills to support designing and making. You can pre-empt the need for some particularly difficult making skills by providing ready- or part-prepared materials. Machine tools and equipment can also reduce tedium and drudgery.

There is no substitute for clear instruction and the opportunity to practice. This is an integral part of a student’s experience. It is important to make appropriate demands on accuracy and precision in the first instance of using new skills. Guidance in designing is of particular importance as, with suitable intervention, a good design which is difficult (if not impossible) for the student to make can be adjusted, through negotiation, to one that requires the student to exercise skill but not at such a high level that failure is almost inevitable or, worse still, that the teacher has to take over, and carry out the operation instead. There are Resources Tasks to teach a range of making skills in each of the media.

Differentiation with Resource Tasks

You can use some or all of the following approaches to differentiation when teaching with a sequence of Resource Tasks.

� Speed of working and length of sequence

You can expect more able students to work faster and attempt more Resource Tasks; that is to say, a longer sequence in the same time it takes less able students to tackle fewer tasks.

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A possible problem with this approach is that the early tasks in the sequence may be irrelevant or trivial for the more able student.

� Place of entry in sequence

More able students enter the sequence at a different point and so miss out the earlier Resource Tasks. A possible consequence of this approach is that some of the earlier tasks in the sequence may, in fact, be relevant and so the learning from the later tasks may be shallow. It is important for students to keep individual records of the Resource Tasks they have attempted to avoid needless repetition.

3 Support for less able students

It is worth identifying the sorts of difficulty that individual students are likely to have in tackling particular Resource Tasks and trying to meet those difficulties. For example, if some students have difficulty in reading a Resource Task, you might produce a tape recording that they can listen to. If a student has difficulty in concentrating, you can mark up their copy of a Resource Task with a series of ‘when you’ve got here come and see me’ points. This will give the student short-term targets, a legitimate break when he or she has been successful and the opportunity for you to acknowledge this and provide encouragement. If a student has difficulty settling to work, then getting that student started at the beginning of a session is a sensible priority.

2.4 Teaching Case StudiesReading Case Studies is part of the Big Three – the Nuffield strategy for successful design and technology; this strongly supports the development of literacy at Key Stage 3. There are 14 Case Studies available as black and white downloadable photocopiable masters from the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website.

Table �: Case Studies

Photocopiable Case Studies from the website

Making jewellery

On display

Netting

Covent Garden Food Company

Hidden killers

Furby

Interior design

Taking cover

Carrying

Food across the world

Pop Tarts

Smart card

Weighing

Product life-cycle analysis

You can use Case Studies in the following ways.• As a starting point for a product analysis exercise and as background to a product

evaluation Resource Task.

For example, the Case Study: Making jewellery, which is about designers who make jewellery, could be linked to SRT 41: Cool or what? which develops your design vocabulary and focuses on a collection of inexpensive jewellery; the Case Study: Pop Tarts, which is about getting ideas for new food products, could be linked to FRT 2: Simple user trip.

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• To provide background information for a Capability Task. For example, the Case Study: Carrying, which is about different carrying devices,

provides useful information for the Capability Tasks: Carrying and Carrier Bags; the Case Study: Covent Garden Soup Company, which is about mass manufacturing, sets the scene for the Capability Task: Homemade or shop bought. Each Capability Task is cross referenced to useful Case Studies.

• To help with technical understanding. For example, the Case Study: Hidden killers, which is about a robot minefield clearer,

provides a useful way to engage students with elements of mechanical and electrical control as well as systems thinking.

• To provide the opportunity to evaluate the effects of design and technology in action. For example, the Case Study: Product life-cycle analysis, gives a technique for this which

can be revisited whenever appropriate.

Students are guided through a Case Study and helped to make its reading an active exercise by the three types of activity listed below.

1 Pause for thought This helps students to think about what they have just read so that the following text will be easier to understand. There is no need for them to write a response.

2 Question This asks the student to stop reading and to tackle the questions. The range of possible answers is wide. The student may need to write down an answer, make a drawing or a model, discuss the study with other students or make a short presentation to the class.

3 Research This asks the students to find out more and to write about what they have found out. It may involve using other information sources or talking to an expert. It may take quite a lot of time so students probably need to do it as homework.

The photocopied Case Studies can be made more active by employing dart techniques, that is: direct action related to text. As the Case Studies are copies, students can carry out the following useful activities:

• underlining important words;• making notes in the margin;• cutting out pictures, sticking them onto a large sheet of paper and adding notes;• colour coding words or phrases to do with a particular issue.

Also, students can take Case Studies home when this is not always possible with textbooks which may be in scarce supply.

There is a useful listing of the Case Studies on the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website. Each Case Study listed shows which Capability Task it supports.

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2.5 Teaching Capability Tasks

Specifying

A Capability Task must have clear educational objectives. These objectives can only become clear if the task is sufficiently specified. For example, ‘Design and make an educational aid for two-year-olds’ is an identified task in that it can be chosen by a teacher and set for a class – but it is barely specified. It is impossible to list what students need to be taught to tackle this task or what they are likely to learn through tackling it. ‘Design and make a series of flash cards (no more than six) to teach two-year-olds the names of household pets’ is the same identified task but highly specified. It is quite possible to work out what needs to be taught and what is likely to be learned. An intermediate position is clearly possible ‘Design and make an educational aid to help two-year-olds learn the names of familiar objects’.

A new Capability Task framework

The Nuffield Project has identified the following features which should be described to specify a Capability Task and provide the information that enables you to teach the task effectively.

1 The task – a short statement that indicates the type of product that the student will design and make.

2 The story so far – describes the setting in which the task is tackled. You can, of course, change the setting if you think that the one provided is unsuitable for your class.

3 Learning – describes the learning that can be achieved through the task in terms of the following categories:

• designing; • making; • technical matters; • commercial matters. Adapt these to be more suitable for your class if you think this is necessary.

4 Design decisions – describes the decisions to be made in tackling the task and whether these decisions are made by the student or the teacher. The design decisions are listed under the following categories:

• the sort of product; • the point of sale; • the customer; • the performance of the product; • the appearance of the product; • the way the product works; • the way the product fits together; • the materials, adhesives, fixings and components. Change these to be more suitable for your class.5 Products – presents photographs of products that students have designed and made

with a short commentary indicating the range of work likely from students of different abilities. It is important that able students design and make products which are

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demanding in their conception, function and manufacture. For example, a 2D piece of jewellery made from a single piece of sheet material is a simple product requiring only basic knowledge, understanding and skill. It is a modest product and yet represents significant achievement for a less able student. A move to 3D and the possibility of construction from several different pieces, coupled with the availability of a wider range of materials, will result in a more complex product requiring more detailed knowledge, understanding and skill. Designing and making this would challenge a more able student. There is a dynamic relationship between the nature of the product and the knowledge and understanding of technical matters and making skills. Complex products demand a high level of knowledge and skill which, in turn, can lead to complex products.

6 Values – for students to appreciate the values which inform the nature of the need or opportunity and to find ways to take them into account. Students should consider their own values and move towards a recognition and understanding of the values of others. They think about situations where there are value conflicts and move from simple, two-sided arguments to understanding complex conflicts involving many-sided arguments. Arguments where qualitative values, for example aesthetic considerations, are in conflict with quantitative values, for example economic considerations, are probably the most difficult to resolve. The values are presented under the following headings:

• technical; • moral; • social; • aesthetic; • economic; • environmental. They do not represent mutually exclusive sets and there will often be overlap between the

categories.

7 Sample brief – use this brief for your class as it stands or adapt it so that it is better suited to your needs.

8 Sample specification – the specification uses the following three subheadings. • What the product has to do. • What the product should look like. • Other features. Use this as an example and individual students can then either use it as it stands or discuss

possible changes. It is essential that every student has a written specification against which to compare developing design ideas and the performance of the final product.

9 Starter sketches – preliminary sketches in response to the brief and specification. You can use them to stimulate ideas either through whole-class discussion or on an individual basis.

10 Nuffield teacher talk – snapshots of the sorts of things teachers need to say when helping students consider their design ideas. They are included to help you think about the different ways you might listen to and encourage your students.

11 Resource Tasks – a list of the Resource Tasks that you can use to support the task. Use your own judgement as to whether they are all necessary.

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12 Case Studies – a list of the Case Studies that you can use to support the task. You can use your discretion as to whether they are all necessary.

13 ICT opportunities – lists the features that should be typed into a search engine to find websites that might provide information useful in tackling the Capability Task and the address of one such website. You can use this to support students’ ICT work in ‘Finding things out’ and ‘Reviewing modifying and evaluating’ work as it progresses.

The section also lists opportunities for CAD (computer-assisted design) and CAM (computer-assisted manufacture).

How Capability Tasks are presented

Capability Tasks are presented as two A4 double-page spreads so that the information is easily and rapidly accessible.

There is a useful summary of the Capability Tasks on the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website. Each task shows the details of the task; the learning, appropriate Resource Tasks and useful Case Studies.

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Teaching a Capability Task

Ten crucial teacher decisions for teaching a Capability Task

Once the Resource Task work and Case Study work have been completed, design and technology comes into its own with students tackling Capability Tasks. To ensure that your students are successful in a Capability Task, you need to manage the learning effectively You can decide on the best way to teach a Capability Task by asking and answering these ten questions.

� How should I introduce the task?

You can choose from one of the following ways. A ‘talk’ start Here the teacher introduces the task through description. Identify six key words related to

the task. Set the scene by reading out ‘The story so far’ from the Capability Task. Ask open questions about each of the key words so that the class can discuss important issues: for example, not ‘Do children play with toys?’ but ‘What sort of toys do children play with?’

A ‘walk’ start Here the teacher takes the students outside the classroom environment to a location which

is relevant to the Capability Task and where design decisions are easy to spot, for example a museum, a shop, a gallery. It is important to keep the students focused so use no more than four questions, for example ‘Who would come here?’, ‘What would be popular here?’, ‘How much would you pay for things on sale here?’, ‘What is the style of this place?’

A ‘hand’ start Here the teacher uses a handling collection and focuses the students’ attention on the

objects by asking them to handle the items and to write the answers to some questions. Here are some possibilities.

• ‘Hold it. Does it feel heavy or light?’ • ‘Touch it. Does it feel rough or smooth?’ • ‘Look at it. What colours can you see? What different parts can you see?’ • ‘Do any of the parts move? Try pulling, pushing, twisting. What happens?’ • ‘Can you work out what the parts do?’ • ‘Whom do you think would use it? Why do you think that?’ • ‘What would they use it for?’ At this stage ask the students to draw a simple sketch of the product they have

investigated and use the answers to the questions as the basis for annotations.

A ‘read’ start

Collect a mixture of printed resources about a theme relevant to the Capability Task: for example, Case Studies, newspaper articles, articles from books and magazines. Give a single resource to each student. Give the students 15 minutes silent reading time in which they have to read an article and identify six key points. It is important that the students can mark the reading matter with highlighters and pens. Once they have finished, their next task is to draw a map showing how the six key points relate to one another. These maps can be put on display and act as the basis for class discussion.

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A ‘computer’ start Divide the class into five groups and ask each group to research an aspect of the

Capability Task using the Internet. You can give each group help in finding the right entry into a search engine. The results of the research can be displayed and shared with all members of the class.

A ‘look-and-see’ start Collect images from a wide range of sources – magazines, books, postcards, catalogues,

newspapers – and produce a pack for each table. Give the class 15 minutes to look at the pack so that each student can identify images that:

• have a strong impact; • he or she particularly likes; • he or she particularly dislikes; • he or she can associate words with. The class can then identify a range of powerful images and their associated words, which

can act as a stimulus for the Capability Task A ‘show’ start Show the class a pair or small collection of products and ask them some specific

questions through which they describe and compare the products. This can help the class understand ideas that will be important for the designing and making they will carry out.

A ‘self’ start Set a research task as homework. Students bring the results to the next lesson to be read

out to the rest of the class. Each student has a 30-second slot. You capture key words on the board and use these to explore the task setting.

2 Do I link the task with other subjects?

You can choose whether or not to link the task with other subjects. Effective links with other subjects will not happen by accident. Only a few students will naturally make connections with other areas of the curriculum. To ensure that the majority make good use of other subjects, it is best to choose a definite subject that lends itself to links with the Capability Task and then to teach that task with this in mind. This is discussed in further detail in Chapter 5.

3 How open do I make the brief?

At Key Stage 3 the teacher is expected to provide students with the brief. The more open the brief, the wider the range of products that students in your class will want to design and make. It is important that the brief is not so open that you cannot support different students’ attempts at designing and making. It is equally important that the brief is not so narrow that all students end up designing and making very similar products. It is essential that the individual signature of each student can show through the work.

4 How do I ensure good design ideas?

You have to decide on the range of ideas that it is best to get from the class. Do you want just one from each student or lots? It is particularly important that that each student receives feedback on their ideas. This is much more manageable if you limit the number of ideas they are asked to produce. If each student is asked to produce one idea on a large Post-it® note, the notes can be displayed and each student can hear feedback from the rest of the group. In this way all students receive feedback and can adapt their ideas accordingly.

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5 How complex should the specification be?

More able students should be working to more ambitious specifications than less able students. You can use the same framework for specification with all students in a class (that is, what the product must do, what it should look like and other features) but you can negotiate the detail with individual students, which is a good way to achieve differentiation.

6 How will students model solutions?

Decide on the diversity of experience that is appropriate and manageable. How many different sorts of modelling will be happening in your class to produce prototype products – just sketching, 3D mock-ups, working models and computer images?

7 How do I ensure they stay on track?

The design ideas are now more fully developed but it is still important that they are scrutinised. This process can be more dynamic if students work in pairs, taking alternate roles of client and designer. The client has the specification and the designer the prototype product (in whatever form this has been developed). The client has to question the designer about the prototype. You can provide questions or expect the students to make them up. It is important that this feedback informs the final design.

8 What sort of written feedback do I give?

You can give three-point feedback to each student based on their Nuffield Notebook and any prototypes they have produced. Give a comment:

• about the design, either overall or on a point of detail; • about the production, such as where particular care is necessary; • to motivate, personal to the student.

9 How do I ensure quality making?

It is important that students are able to make their designs. You have to decide on the range of tools, equipment, materials and components they can use and the amount of help you can give. You may need to demonstrate or set up specialist making stations. It might be important to encourage students to help each other.

10 How will I organise final evaluation?

There are several different strategies for final evaluation: • comparison of performance against specification; • user response; • performance in the light of wider issues (winners and losers or appropriateness). These can be carried out by individuals, in pairs or small groups, and sometimes through

general class discussion.

You will need to ensure that students are taught these methods of evaluating and given the opportunity to use them in a variety of ways.

These teacher decisions are summarised in Table 3.

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Table 3: Ensuring your decisions make a difference

Capability Teacher decisions Task activityIntroducing Talk start Walk start Hand start Read start Computer start See start Show start Self startLinking Which other area of the curriculum do you want your students to use in this Capability Task? Is it maths, science, art and design, IT, one of the key skills, literacy, citizenship?The brief What is the scope of the brief? Just how open or closed should it be for your students? Closed <——–————————————◆————–––—––———————> OpenTrapping Use getting design idea strategies for students to produce initial design ideas. Do you want ideas and them to produce just one idea each or lots of different ideas? Display the ideas so that 1st feedback each student can get feedback from the rest of the group. Just one idea <————————––——◆———––––———————> Lots of ideasThe How complex should the task be for particular students? specification Negotiate the specification with individual students to achieve good differentiation Simple <——————————–————◆——––———————————> Complex This is a good time to carry out Review 1

Modelling What’s the diversity of experience here? solutions How many different sorts of modelling will be happening in your class to produce prototype products? Just one sort <—————–––—–———◆——––—————> Several different sortsSecond Working in pairs students take on alternate roles of client and designer. Client has specification feedback and designer has prototype product. Will the product meet the specification? Will it delight the client? What questions will the students ask? Will you give them questions or will they make them up? Given questions <—————––————◆——–—————————> Free questions This is a good time to carry out Review 2.

Teacher Use prototypes and students’ Nuffield Notebook to give three-point feedback to each student feedback • a comment about the design either overall or a point of detail; • a comment about the production; • personal to the student a comment to motivate.

Production What range of tools, materials and technical components will students use Narrow range <———————————◆——––————————— Wide range Will all the students be able to make their design? How much help will you need to give? Can they help each other? Will you need to demonstrate? Will you need to set up specialist making stations?

Final How will your students evaluate their products? evaluation On their own? In pairs or small groups? Through general class discussion? What criteria will they use for this evaluation?

Key: See the ◆ as a slider which you can move to the correct teaching decision.

2.6 Reviewing progress throughout a Capability TaskIn-built assessment through reviewing

As students work through a Capability Task, they should be thinking about what to do, what they have done and how this affects what they should do next. If you can make this thinking explicit, you will have a very powerful insight into their developing capability and an important source of assessment evidence. You can use the way students review the progress of their work during a Capability Task for this purpose.

From the student’s view point reviewing is essential for two reasons.

1 It demands that the student stop and reflect on what she or he has done so far and the consequences of this for further action. Strategically, it gives students a sense that designing is a coherent and continuous activity, rather than a series of unconnected steps

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prompted by teacher intervention or worksheet instruction. It is important for the student to view designing as a sequence of connected activities over which she or he has some control. Reviewing helps to establish this view.

2 By confronting students with the consequences of their actions, the review procedure can provide momentum for the task by forcing students to decide what to do next.

Timing of reviews

In one sense, reviewing should happen continuously as every action should be the result of a plan–execute–review cycle.• I plan to take a particular course of action because …• I do it.• I reflect on the result of the doing (i.e. I review the consequences of my actions) and use

these thoughts to plan my next action.It is impossible to monitor closely this continuous and on-going reviewing within a student’s work, but the Nuffield Project has identified the following three staging posts in design activity where a more formal review is extremely useful.

Review �

This takes place once a student has produced a preliminary design proposal either on paper or as a quick mock-up. It is important that he or she reviews this against the brief or the specification. In this way you can ensure that you spot wildly inappropriate or impractical designs and deliberately intervene to ensure that the student reconsiders.

Review �

Further into the task the student will have a much more detailed idea of the design proposal in the form of clearly annotated sketches and a more developed mock-up. At this stage the student should review progress so far in two ways: (i) the developed design against the specification to ensure that it will meet the requirements; (ii) the design in terms of its production as a working prototype. This will involve thinking about the availability of time, materials, tools and equipment.

Review 3

Once the design has been manufactured, the student should review her or his product to check performance against specification, user reaction and overall appropriateness.

A review must not take up too much time as this could lead to its becoming an end in itself rather than informing the design activity.

Methods of reviewing

Students can carry out reviewing in several ways.• Orally, through discussion with other students or the teacher. This is powerful and

immediate but yields only witness evidence.• Through unstructured writing, such as informal entries into a design diary. This provides

permanent evidence but is often difficult to decipher and attainment evidence remains hidden unless a lot of teacher time is spent unpacking the detailed contents of the diary.

• Through structured writing in which students answer ready prepared questions on a worksheet. This provides permanent evidence and the advantage of ready prepared questions is that they can be tailored to reveal particular attainment.

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These questions do, however, run the risk of being misinterpreted by students, particularly if they have been written to apply generally across any Capability Task.

So all methods have advantages and disadvantages. You will need to ring the changes on the methods you adopt and, most importantly, to ensure that students are taught how to review rather than simply being left to review. If students are to review orally, then a class discussion of a set of prompt cards to be used prior to the review will improve the quality of the review. Similar prompts could be used to inform design diary writing. The best way to tackle the structured writing approach can be taught through a class discussion based around a worked example presented as an OHP or flip chart.

You can use the Review Guide, available as a download from the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website, as a basis for teaching about reviewing and as a general reminder for students about why, when and how to review.

As students progress they will need less formal instruction on reviewing. Ultimately, they will be able to decide for themselves when and how to review during a Capability Task and to do this in ways which provide you with easily accessible evidence of attainment. It is likely, however, that most students in Key Stage 3 will need a supported, if not a structured approach.

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2.7 Using the Self-Assessment Sheets

There are three entries on the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website to help with student self-assessment.1 Find out what keeps you back!2 Check out your designing, making and evaluating.3 Looking in detail at how you did.

Students can use any of these at the end of a Capability Task to review performance and to set targets for improvement in the next Capability Task. ‘Find out what keeps you back!’ is the simplest and can be used with a wide range of ability. It is important that this sheet is done quickly: ten minutes maximum. It provides a useful opportunity to discuss any difficulties under three headings.

1 Stop/Go What held me up? and How did I overcome it?2 Help When did I need it? and How did I get it?3 Boring/Enjoy When do I lose interest? and How do I get it back?

It is likely that the answers to the second question in each pair will provide a target for improvement.

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‘Check out your designing, making and evaluating’ uses a simple Yes/No approach to finding out exactly what the student did in four important areas:1 developing design ideas; 3 quality of making;2 organising making; 4 methods of evaluation.The sheet requires more reading than ‘Find out what keeps you back!’ so some students may need extra help in using it. It should be used in conjunction with the student’s flatwork and finished product. There is a ‘Next time’ column which students can use to set targets for improvement. Most students will be able to complete this sheet in 20 minutes.

‘Looking In detail at how you did’ is the most demanding of the self-assessment sheets. It assesses three broad areas in considerable detail:• being clear about what the student had to do;• the student’s use of time;• the student’s drive and motivation.

It should be used in conjunction with the student’s flatwork and finished product. There is a ‘Comments’ column which students can use to set targets for improvement. Able students will be able to complete this sheet in 20 minutes.

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It is worth finding time to talk to students about their self-assessment sheets. You can provide guidance to ensure that the targets for improvement are both realistic and relevant. This only takes a very brief conversation, as you will already be familiar with the student’s work, having taught him or her during the Capability Task. It is also important that the teacher of the next Capability Task is aware of these targets and can help students to achieve them.

2.8 Using Chooser Charts

Table 4: Chooser Charts

Strategies Chooser Chart

Communicating Chooser Chart

Consequences Chooser Chart

Wood and Manufactured Board Chooser Chart

Metals Chooser Chart

Plastics Chooser Chart

Adhesives Chooser Chart

Fittings Chooser Chart

Finishes Chooser Chart

Tools Chooser Chart

Fabrics Chooser Chart

Fastenings Chooser Chart

Fabric Decoration Chooser Chart

Food Wrappings Chooser Chart

Fillings Chooser Chart

Mechanisms Chooser Chart

Electric Components Chooser Chart

Sensing with Electronics Chooser Chart

Each of these are downloadable from the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website as photocopiable masters so that each student can have a copy to annotate and use when making design decisions.

You can use the Chooser Chart to help students keep ownership of their ideas. All teachers have been in the situation where a student has presented a design idea which is seriously flawed. What does the teacher do? There are two extreme responses. Explain what’s wrong and provide an alternative design that is not flawed. Sanction the idea in the belief that the student will learn a lot when the flaws reveal themselves. Neither is satisfactory. In the first the student has a design that will work but at the expense of losing ownership, in the

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second the student retains ownership, but at the expense of considerable disappointment and possible demotivation. A middle way is clearly desirable. This is where Chooser Charts come in. They contain, literally, dozens of solutions to design problems and by using a chart as the basis for careful questioning you can lead a student to identify the flaws in an existing design idea and propose alternative improved ideas. The charts also provide a powerful mechanism for differentiation. The sorts of questions you use to get a student to make best use of a Chooser Chart can be adapted for differing abilities. With students of limited ability, it might be a case of using the chart to identify just one viable design idea. With a much more able student, you can use the same chart, but different questions, to elicit several plausible design ideas and some criteria that the student can use to choose the one most likely to be successful.

2.9 The Nuffield Notebook

There is no doubt that designing is an intensely personal business. A designer’s drawings from preliminary doodles to finished renderings and accurate plans are in some ways as intimate as an artist’s sketchbook. This is particularly so for the early work where the ideas are emerging and developing into an, as yet, incomplete and uncertain design. Just what is the best way for students to tell the story of their designing and making? There is no doubt that large sheets of blank paper are an intimidating way to start. This is where the idea of the Nuffield Notebook comes in. It is a working design diary in which students can record all that is necessary to tell the story of their designing and making as it happens. Note the last three words. There is no room in this book for neat nonsense or retrospective titivation.

There are two schools of thought about its exact form. Nick Givens of Exeter University is keen on its being a book, somewhere between A5 and A4 in size, with a hard cover and alternative blank and lined paper. ‘The key thing is’ he says, ‘that the pages stay in the right order and nothing can get lost. You’ve got a complete record.’

Jon Parker of Northampton Inspection and Advisory Service takes a different view. ‘It should be like a largish Filofax, with all sorts of different papers – plain, lined, coloured, graph. It’s possible to stick in all sorts of samples either directly onto a page or in a plastic pocket. So it’s up to you whether you choose a book or a personal organiser as the Nuffield Notebook. There is no doubt that you will have to teach students how to manage the personal organiser but the increased flexibility may pay dividends. Potentially, the contents of the Notebook will provide you with much that is useful for both formative and summative assessment. Both Nick and Jon are convinced that this potential will only be realised if you make it clear to students exactly what you require to be in the Notebook. The key feature for content is ‘useful’, useful to the student in getting ideas, developing ideas, organising making and evaluating the product. If the contents meet this criteria, they will more than meet any assessment requirements.

Here is a list of typical, useful contents for telling the story of designing and making in a Capability Task.

• Title page. (Keep it simple, no neat nonsense.)

• How I started. (Remember you, as the teacher, can choose this and decide on useful ways to record it.)

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• What else I’m going to use. (If you are going to link the task to another subject area, the students should know and make a record.)

• The brief. (You have decided on this and students can copy it from the board, or in some cases stick a copy in the Notebook.)

• My ideas and comments from the group. (You have organised a lesson where students record their ideas, record feedback and adapt them accordingly.)

• My specification. (You have used a common framework for the class but individual students develop their own specification and record it.)

• What my modelling told me. (The forms of modelling will vary – 2D, 3D, using construction kits or materials of the final product; but it is what the modelling reveals to the student that is important and useful so it is this that should be recorded.)

• What the one-to-one feedback told me. (The results of the feedback should be recorded and any changes made to the design as a result clearly noted.)

• Red pen day. (Although you may well have written comments of students’ work already, this is a key moment for you to write short comments which will help and motivate the students.)

• My making. (Action plans and lists of requirements are useful here.)

• My evaluation. (You can decide on the methods of evaluation, how students can work together to get the best from them, and the level of detail required in the write up.)

The aim of this structure is not to produce a uniform work across the class; quite the opposite. The support provided allows students to concentrate on developing their own ideas to the full, not in isolation but as part of a class in which there is a culture of sharing and co-operation to everyone’s benefit. The individual signature of each student will be developed and revealed; every student will gain from the sharing of ideas and working with a partner. The worth of the work in the Notebooks will be recognised and valued. The teacher will find the situation manageable and see students making progress. The contents of the Notebooks will provide insight into the minds of the students.

If you want your students to keep their own personal sketchbooks, visit http://www.nuffieldcurriculumcentre.org/go/CurriculumIssues/Issue_93.html where you can find a guide to keeping a sketchbook.

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3 Planning for capability3.1 Planning for breadth and depth across Key Stage 3

The revised National Curriculum in Design and Technology requires that students experience breadth of study. This demands a broad and balanced experience which meets the following criteria. Students:

• design and make in different contexts including work with control systems, using a range of materials during the Key Stage including timbers, metals, plastics, composites, ready made components and kits, textiles and food;

• learn through focused practical tasks in which they develop and practise particular skills and knowledge;

• undertake product analysis;

• work independently and in teams,

The Nuffield approach to this issue is to select a sequence of Capability Tasks for the entire Key Stage in which students design and make in the required contexts.

In preparation for each Capability Task, students will undertake product analysis and focused practical tasks. During the Capability Tasks, they will have the opportunity to work both as individuals and in teams. To achieve depth, the Nuffield Project recommends that students tackle three Capability Tasks per year in Years 7 and 8 and two in Year 9. Students will therefore undertake eight Capability Tasks across Key Stage 3.

There is a menu of Capability Tasks so that you can choose a sequence of eight such tasks as shown in Table 5 below. Graphic products tasks have been included in Year 9 so that, in schools where this may be an option, students can make an informed choice of GCSE course.

Table 5: The Capability Task menu for Key Stage 3

Resistantmaterials Control Food Textiles Graphicproducts

Year 7 Novelties Incorporated Special effects Creative Food Long and short of it or or or or Rainbow Radios Masks Healthy heart T-tops

Year 8 Display your Robots are Go! Better food Hot comfort treasures or or or or Smart card Handmade or Carrier bags Carrying security shop bought

Year 9 Better weighing Electronic School trip Flat pack hats Information or opportunities or or communication Petshop parade or Hi Quality Tours Strut your stuff kiosk Electronic or education Live in design

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3.2 Choosing a Capability Task sequence across Key Stage 3

The example below (Table 6) shows one of the many sequences of Capability Tasks that can be selected from Table 5. Close inspection shows that it meets the criteria for breadth and depth at this level of planning. A student following such a course would experience eight Capability Tasks and work in resistant materials, food, textiles and control and use both kits and components. The student would also spend enough time on each Capability Task for the work in each of the different media to be significant. If the Capability Tasks are taught in the way recommended by the Nuffield Project, the rest of the criteria are automatically fulfilled.

Clearly, students in other groups will approach the units of work in a different order. Some students may even tackle different Capability Tasks, depending on which year they are timetabled for different material experiences. It is important to scrutinise all the different Capability Task sequences that are being followed by students to ensure that each sequence meets the criteria of breadth and depth. One way to do this is to think of the activities that an individual student will experience as he or she moves from teacher to teacher, from room to room and from year to year.

Note that in the latter part of Year 9, the department has decided to re-group students to give them the opportunity to work within their chosen GCSE optional area. This has the advantage of both getting the GCSE course off to an early start and, at the same time, providing students with the opportunity to confirm they have made the right choice before the start of the course in Year 10.

Schools have found that it is very useful to share these Capability Task sequences with their students, to give them a clear picture of the activities planned and the time to be spent on each activity.

You may find that you have to consider several different sequences before you find the one that best matches the particular needs of the students in your school and makes the best use of the staffing and resources of your department.

Table 6: A possible Capability Task sequence for Key Stage 3

CapabilityTask1 CapabilityTask2 CapabilityTask3

Year7 Resistant materials: Food: Textiles: Novelties Incorporated Healthy heart Long and short of it

Year8 Control: Resistant materials: Food: Robots are Go! Display your treasures Better food

Year9 Textiles: Control: Re-group into GCSE options Strut your stuff Electronic opportunities Taking: Resistant materials, Food, Textiles or Systems and control

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3.3 Planning for continuity and progression across Key Stage 3 Continuity between Years 6 and 7

It is important that you know about the design and technology curriculum of your feeder primary schools. This is sometimes a daunting task when your school receives students from lots of different primary schools. It is clear, however, from those who have been able to visit primary schools, that in many cases secondary school teachers underestimate the abilities of students in Year 7 – and this is not only in design and technology. Whilst it might be impossible to know in detail what every child has experienced in their primary school, you can, by the way you teach design and technology, enable Year 7 students to reveal what they can do.It is important to expect them to be capable and to give them the chance to show that they are capable. Of course, it is better if you can forge good links with feeder primary schools, especially those from whom you receive the majority of your students. Some schools have successfully organised design and technology activities for Year 6 students which take place in both the primary and the secondary schools. The results have invariably been that the secondary school teachers were impressed by the abilities of the Year 6 students and the Year 6 students, having been introduced to the specialist facilities of the secondary schools, did not ‘back slide’ on transfer. Active teaching of Capability Tasks as described in Section 2.3 (pages 14-20) is particularly important in enabling Year 7 students to make a good start. The opportunity to negotiate specifications with individual students can help you to make good use of what the students already know and can do.

Progression in designing across Years 7, 8 and 9

Teaching design strategies through Resource Tasks was discussed in Section 2.3 and the point made that it is only by choosing and using these in Capability Tasks that students could demonstrate progress in designing. Table 1 on page 10 gives suggestions as to which design strategies should be taught within each Capability Task. This is a clear way of ensuring that, as students move from teacher to teacher, all staff have a firm understanding of what designing skills have been taught.

For example, once students have been taught the use of image boards during their first Capability Task, using SRT 8, all staff can expect them to know not only how to prepare an image board to stimulate ideas but also when the strategy might be most usefully employed again. Conversely, if all students are to be taught how to write interview questions during their fourth Capability Task, in Year 8, it would be inappropriate for staff to use interviewing techniques with students in Year 7, before they have all been taught SRT 4 and know how to develop questioning strategies most effectively.

Over the Key Stage, this enables all students gradually to build up a whole menu of designing strategies. Eventually, they should be able to choose the most appropriate strategies for themselves. This is particularly important when they start to work more independently on their Key Stage 4 coursework tasks.

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Progression through Capability Task challenge

The Capability Tasks have been designed to make use of the knowledge and skills taught through Resource Tasks and Case Studies. The Capability Tasks that a student tackles in Year 7 are likely to be less challenging than those tackled in Year 8, which, in turn, will be less challenging than those tackled in Year 9. This progression in challenge has been achieved through the manipulation of the following features.

1Thedesignoftheproduct

The greater the complexity of technical working required, the more challenging the task. The more difficult the product is to make, the more challenging the task. The greater the number of requirements to be met by the product, the more challenging the task.

2Thematerials,components,toolsandequipment

The wider the range of materials and components available, the more challenging the task. The wider the range of tools and equipment available, the more challenging the task. These ranges should get wider as students move through the Key Stage.

3Thetimeavailable

This is usually decided by the teacher, although time management within the task is a feature over which students have some control and where decisions can affect success. Long periods of self-direction are very demanding in terms of planning and sustaining motivation.

4Thetypeofworkingrequired

The range of scenarios here includes: working solo; working as part of a group all dealing with a single medium of outcome; working as part of a group with different members dealing with different media of outcome.

The more lines of communication, the more challenging the task becomes.

5Presentationandreports

Presenting and reporting design proposals and/or methods used for tackling the task add to the demands of the task.

You can manipulate these features to make the Capability Tasks more or less challenging. You may wish to do this for the class as a whole in response to the timing of the task. A task designed for Year 7 can easily be made suitable for Year 8 by changing the challenge. Or you may wish to do this on an individual basis through negotiation with a student, so that the student has to meet requirements that are more stringent than those for others in the class.

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3.4 Ensuring coverage of the programme of study

A sequence of Capability Tasks like that shown in Table 6 will cover most elements of the Programme of Study. An audit of the Programme of Study requirements for each Capability Task (plus associated Resource Tasks and Case Studies) is given on the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website. Such an audit will always make assumptions about both the way the task has been taught and the success of the teachings so it is likely that you will need to carry out your own audit on completion of a Capability Task to get a true picture-

A feature of the Revised Orders is the explicit mention of the influence of designers and others from industry and commerce. Responding to this gives students the chance to design and make for real clients rather than imagined markets. There are several opportunities for this in the Capability Tasks in the Teachers File. The task setting outlined in ‘The story so far’ can be adapted to include real clients. Here are some examples.

Table 7: Designing for real clients

Year Title

Year7 Rainbow Radios – the client could be the manager of the local Dixons interested in developing a new product line

Healthy heart – the client could be a local leisure centre mounting a keep fit campaign

Masks – the client could be a local fancy dress hire shop

Year8 Display your treasures – the client could be a local antiques shop

Hot comfort – the client could be the local branch of Shelter and the brief changed to develop clothing for the homeless

Better food – the client could be the manager of a local supermarket

Year9 Hi Quality Tours –- the client could be the local travel agency

Information communication kiosk – the client could be the manager of the local BT shop

Electronic education – the client could be the manager of a local toy shop

A highly effective way of involving real clients is to work with a local special school. Such an activity needs to be undertaken carefully and sensitively. Another way to tackle this is to contact your local REMAP branch. REMAP is a registered charity dedicated to designing and making technical equipment for disabled people. They have a network of regional organisers covering the whole of England, Wales and Scotland. Many schools have made successful contact. The headquarters is at ‘Hazledene’ Ightham, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN15 9AD, telephone: 01732 883818.

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4 Assessing capability4.1 Identifying levels of attainment

Each school is required to report the level of attainment in design and technology achieved by each student at the end of Key Stage 3. This is achieved by finding the level description that best matches each student’s performance! There is a wide range of evidence to be drawn from their work across the Key Stage indicating the progress they have made. As several teachers will have taught each student and will be involved in making this assessment, it is important that all teachers in a department are very familiar with, and have a shared understanding of, these level descriptions.

The Nuffield approach to this is for the department to build up portfolios of individual student’s work which can be matched to specific level expectations. These have proved to be a valuable tool for staff as an aid to agreeing on common standards and a benchmark to facilitate teacher assessment, and for students, to see clearly what they are being expected to achieve.

A portfolio of a student’s work should usefully include a statement which captures aspects of individual capability demonstrated throughout the Key Stage, and which will help staff decide which level description best fits the student’s performance over a range of projects. In this way, you will have the evidence for the student to attain at the highest level commensurate with their individual abilities, as demonstrated in their work across the Key Stage.

Here are three examples of student’s work undertaken across Key Stage 3. Clearly, they provide just a snapshot from a much broader range of information and experience which teachers will have about each student. But, they should help you to create a picture of four different individuals, their strengths and weaknesses in performance across a range of contexts and over a period of time. More detail is given for each of the Year 9 tasks followed, to illustrate the kind of specific comments you could make to describe the more general statements of the level descriptions.

As you read these summaries, consider the appropriateness of the range of activities that they have undertaken and form a view as to which level description you feel provides the best fit.

Ben, Hannah and Tim are all 14-year-old students in their final term of Year 9, from a range of schools. Over the Key Stage, each of them has worked across the full range of activities described in the Programme of Study: Resource Tasks, product analysis and Capability Tasks. These have covered work in resistant materials and components, systems and control, food and textiles.

They have all completed a large number of focused Resource Tasks, working in these materials, and a number of more general Resource Tasks, covering designing and communicating skills. These have been largely teacher-directed activities aimed at developing particular knowledge, skills and understanding.

During this time, each has completed between eight and ten Capability Tasks. Each of these has provided good opportunities for them to demonstrate their design and technology capability and to apply the skills learnt in these more focused activities.

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Ben

In Years 7 and 8, Ben completed six Capability Tasks, working for approximately 12 weeks on each.

Ben’s designing and making in Year 7

In Healthy heart, Ben produced toppings for baked potatoes, after successfully experimenting with a good range of fillings. He worked safely and independently in the kitchen and repeated his menu at home. He completed a well-written evaluation based on the ‘user trip’ Resource Task.

In T-tops, Ben made a top to wear on his holidays. Using a pattern supplied by the school he was able to make basic alterations to the sleeve and body lengths. After being taught four alternative decorative techniques, he used tie and dye to produce a pleasing end product.

In Novelties Inc. Ben used ICT to research and investigate marine life as the basis for fridge magnet design suitable for sale in a local garden centre or aquarium. He was able to mark out, cut and shape his design in copper sheet with a satisfactory level of accuracy, before decorating it with brightly coloured enamels.

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In Year 9, Ben tackled two more Capability Tasks before choosing his GCSE options. Each was of 15 weeks duration, giving the students the opportunity to work in more depth than in Years 7 and 8.

Ben’s desigining and making in Year 8

In Robots are Go! the task for Ben and a partner was to design and make a pick-and-place robot controlled through a computer interface. The mechanical and electrical components were provided and Ben and his friend worked through some Mechanical and Computer Control Resource Tasks and built up on understanding of the basic concepts of control technology. They wrote an instruction booklet for their robot and their teacher invited students in from a local primary school to test out the robot and the usefulness of the instruction booklet. Ben was proud to share his work with them.

In Better food, Ben was required to research the types of cook-in sauces available in different supermarkets. He worked in a group to prepare similar products that could be sold in a local supermarket. This involved making different pasta sauces and designing and making suitable packing, including decorative labels and tops for the jars.

In Carrier bags, the group researched a wide range of carrying devices before deciding on a personal need. Ben decided on a lightweight bag which he could carry over his back whilst cycling. Resource Tasks were used to investigate different fastenings and to compare the properties of different materials. He modelled his ideas as a paper pattern to determine the size of the container and the length of strap. The final product was made in cotton, with Velcro® fastenings. For the outside of the bag. He wrote ‘Tour de France’ on the computer and downloaded it to a vinyl cutter to produce an iron-on transfer.

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Ben’s designing and making in Year 9

In Electronic opportunities, Ben worked with electronic components to design and make a sensing device. He constructed an overflow alarm for a partially sighted person to use when filling a kettle and was able to construct a successful working product, developing his idea from the circuits provided and incorporating these into a vacuum-formed package. By the end of the task, Ben had:• independently investigated a number of

electric kettles to work out the size of his sensing device;

• sketched suitable ideas for the product casing, using Tryroform® to model the shape;

• copied a circuit diagram onto the computer and produced a print out for the PCB;

• shaped an MDF lock as a mould to be vacuum formed;

• soldered components to the PCB, only needing help to re-solder a couple of joints when the circuit was tested;

• assembled a final product which worked satisfactorily when fitted over the edge of a kettle;

• recognised the difficulty of making a waterproof casing to ensure that the product would withstand constant use.

By Whitsun in Year 9, the school required students to confirm their GCSE options, and Ben chose to study design and technology: Resistant Materials Technology. The department regrouped the students and gave them the opportunity to try out their chosen option during the remainder of Year 9. During these weeks, Ben undertook a number of Communication Resource Tasks, giving him the chance to improve his drawing and modelling skills and then making a mock-up of a battery-powered light to use for model making.

On this evidence, what level of attainment would you give Ben?

In Petshop parade, Ben designed and made an automaton to be sold in a petshop. The group made working mechanical models, illustrating different input-output movements, and produced a useful collection of working models upon which to base their designs. Ben produced a successful model of a lizard, using a gear wheel to drive a rack as the lizard’s tongue. By the end of the task, Ben had:• used the handling collection to select

independently a suitable mechanism for his automaton;

• sketched different ways to construct the lizard, but needed help to work out how the sides could contain the driving mechanism;• produced a suitably annotated final plan

and modelled the profile to confirm the correct size for the body;

• modified the design during making to ensure that the tongue would stop at the right point;

• used hand and machine tools safely to cut and shape components with appropriate accuracy;

• needed advice on the application of a suitable finish to avoid spoiling the project;

• spoken briefly about his design to the rest of the group, recognising the main strengths and weaknesses of his design.

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Hannah

In Years 7 and 8, Hannah, like Ben, completed six Capability Tasks.

Hannah’s designing and making in Year 7

In Rainbow Radios, Hannah worked in a team of four to assemble a simple working radio from a kit of parts, forming a small production line to share out the tasks required. She had to design and make a shell to house the radio, suitable for sale in the giftshop of a hotel chain. She used a stiff card box, constructing an accurate net to which she added a cutout profile of a hotel as the radio front. She then printed the name of the hotel and drew windows and doors using ICT to complete a successful working product.

In Special effects, Hannah’s task was to design and make a small-scale controllable vehicle suitable for a science fiction film. Resource Tasks gave Hannah a good understanding of basic mechanical and electrical control. The project involved teamwork to agree on the appearance of the vehicle and the way it would work. Each group’s model was video-taped crossing a film set. Her group produced a well-presented model but it only moved in a straight line, powered by a single motor. But for the second project the quality of finish was good, helped by the card modelling of their first project.

I n Nove l t i e s I nc . , Hannah learnt basic making techniques and how to adapt existing recipes. Her final task was to batch produce a dozen small cakes or biscuits and she chose to decorate t h em w i t h s imp l e icing techniques on a flower theme. Hannah worked confidently in the kitchen, having had con s ide rab l e experience of food in her primary school. Her final products were all of a high and consistent quality.

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In Hot comfort, Hannah chose to design and make a head warmer for herself. She tried out different shapes and tested the insulation properties of different woven fabrics. Her final product was carefully put together and fitted well.

In Display your treasures, Hannah designed and made a display system for a collection of objects. She chose to display her five favourite CDs. Her teacher provided her with some ‘starter sketches’ to give her ideas for some interesting structures. She developed one of the ideas in thin plywood, first modelling it in card to be sure of the correct dimensions. She learnt to use the electric fretsaw to complete the task. She stained the plywood pieces in bright woodstain before assembly to complete a well-finished product.

Smart card security required Hannah to design and make a security system. A Resource Task on smart cards gave her a fuller understanding of this new technology. Working in teams, each group was required to simulate a potential use. Her group made a model door to control entry to a student room, requiring the use of a solenoid lock. Her project folder displayed a good understanding of the use of smart cards and the group successfully incorporated technical components into a working model.

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In Information communication kiosk, Hannah designed and made a model of a communication kiosk. This was an opportunity to develop both her graphic and modelling skills and to be creative in a visual way, and she chose to design a booth in which it would be possible to enjoy both sound and vision. By the end of the project, Hannah had:• developed a range

of graphic techniques to express her ideas;

• produced a scale model in card and rod, using ICT to show small detail;

• analysed two existing communications products to assess their usefulness, including a mobile phone and a hand-held computer.

In Strut your stuff, Hannah had to design and manufacture a prototype fashion item in textiles. Her teacher allowed the group a wide choice from scarves, belts, bags, hats and tops. She decided to make a cotton top and used the step-by-step guidelines for making a T-shirt style top in one of the Resource Tasks. Her teacher demonstrated different decorative techniques to the group and Hannah decided to experiment with screen-printing. She drew an abstract design using ICT, based on clip-art images, and cut her screen. The simple screen-printed block on the top was effective. By the end of the project Hannah had:• developed her own pattern from that

provided;• used ICT effectively to design for screen-printing;• produced samples of different stitching techniques,

using the sewing machine confidently, and kept a full record of her experiments in her project folder;

• developed competent making skills;• demonstrated confident use of screen-printing

techniques;• taken part in an ‘in class’ fashion show;• a good understanding of constructional techniques:

for example, reflecting on the advantages of using an overlooker.

Hannah hadn’t worked in Food since

Year 7 and in Hi Quality Tours her teacher used some

Resource Tasks to re-establish basic skills, investigating and adapting recipes and learning to choose the right preparation and cooking methods for different products. Hannah was required to create a graphic display and a range of food in order to market a destination for a travel agency. Hannah had visited Legoland in Denmark and, remembering the Danish open sandwiches,


decided to promote Denmark. Her final display consisted of a

carefully presented display panel advertising Danish holidays, open sandwiches topped with a range of tempting meats and fish, and a well-produced folding A4 leaflet created professionally using DTP. By the end of the project Hannah had:• researched widely, using the public library, the

Internet and written to the Danish Tourist Board;• investigated different ways in which food can be

preserved and served;• produced a comprehensive leaflet, using digital

images and DTP software;• worked confidently and competently in the

kitchen;• designed her own preference test and set up a

tasting panel.

On this evidence, what level of attainment would you give Hannah?

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Tim

In Year 7, in order to fit four Capability Tasks into the year, Tim’s teacher used different strategies to shorten the time spent on each task, and by the end of the year, Tim had completed four different products.

Tim’s designing and making in Year 7

In Long and short of it, Tim was able to make a pair of holiday shorts in just nine weeks. He used an existing pattern, altered it slightly, decorated the fabric using the tie-and-dye technique, and applied a patch pocket of his own design.

In Healthy heart, Tim’s group was given a brief and detailed specification. They had to design and make snacks as part of a healthy eating campaign. This provided a good opportunity to research nutritional requirements and to experiment with ways in which existing recipes could be improved: for example, reducing fat or increasing fibre. His final product was a tasty snack bar using dried fruits. For his first experience of food technology, Tim had made excellent progress.

In Masks, Tim’s task was to design and make a face mask incorporating simple electronic effects for a Hallowe’en party. This was a group project and he worked in a team to develop a vacuum-formed mould and set up a production line to complete the electrical circuits. The switch and batteries were mounted on a block and attached with Velcro®, to a belt. Tim liked the group work and had a clear understanding of the type of circuitry required.

In Novelties Inc., Tim’s teacher gave the group basic sketches of product ideas for sale at a garden centre. The teacher demonstrated the Resource Task Stripy jewellery, and the group made a variety of products using this technique. Tim’s final product, a butterfly-shaped brooch, was carefully finished and polished.

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In Display your treasures, Tim had to design and make a display system for ‘collectables’. The group experimented with thin sheet materials, rods and tubes to construct lightweight, visually interesting structures. Tim decided to display a collection of scale model vehicles, building a bridge type structure to display the items. He put considerable effort into completing the project, using the materials carefully and effectively.


In Carrier bags, Tim had to design and make a simple personal carrying device. He was expected to undertake more in-depth research and

collected a wide range of different illustrations of carrying devices, making up an image board of his

research. He decided to make a shoulder bag to carry his sports kit and his experience

with the sewing machine in Year 7 stood him in good stead

and he made a competent job of completing his bag.

In Better food, Tim had to design and make an improved pasta product; again he enjoyed the chance to research into existing solutions. He visited local supermarkets and quite independently looked at their websites to investigate their products further. Tim prepared thoroughly for his practical lessons and under took several trial runs before settling on his chosen dish. As the project developed, he became able to draw useful flow charts to guide his practical activity.

His final product demonstrated a thorough understanding of

the ways in which the texture, flavour and aroma of sauces can be modified.

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In Year 9, Tim had the option of working first in either resistant materials or control and then in either food or textiles. These represented the four GCSE options offered in the school. After Whitsun, students moved into their GCSE options, as in Ben’s school. Tim chose control and, in the last half term, undertook a number of Resource Tasks in preparation for his GCSE course.


In Electronic opportunities, Tim was able to build upon his knowledge gained making masks in Year 7 to complete confidently the Resource Tasks set, and then chose to design and make a frost alarm for his father’s greenhouse. By the end of the project, Tim had:• undertaken research in a local electronics superstore

to develop his knowledge of existing solutions;• discussed his ideas with his teacher, showing

a high level of understanding of the type of circuit required;

• recorded his ideas and development of the project clearly in a project notebook;

• used PCB software to design and subsequently produce a PCB with help from the technician;

• incorporated his circuit into an appropriate container suitable for the task;

• tested his circuit using PCB software;• showed a high level of initiative and

knowledge and understanding of the construction of circuits.

School trip required Tim to develop food products which could be served during a school field trip. Resource Tasks on nutritional analysis and on recipes involving wrapping food extended his knowledge of different possibilities. After experimentation and use of sensory evaluation tests with other students, the group prepared sample foodstuffs to meet the brief. By the end of the project, Tim had:• developed alternative fillings

and casings for pasties and set up thorough sensory evaluation tests to determine individual likes and dislikes;

• worked methodically and with due regard for hygiene regulations and the risks involved in preparing food, transporting it, reheating and serving it, showing a good understanding of HACCP procedures.

On this evidence, what level of attainment would you give Tim?

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4.2 Marking, assessment, record keeping and reporting

It will be important for both the teacher and the student to keep records showing which Resource Tasks have been completed, which Case Studies have been read and which Capability Tasks have been tackled. You can use the Checklists downloadable from the Nuffield Secondary Design & Technology website for this purpose. It is important that the student understands how to make best use of this work in developing her or his attainment in design and technology.

The advice from the Nuffield Project based on good research evidence* is: assess your students’ work, don’t mark it.

• Conversations supported by short written comments during Resource Task and Case Study work will be useful.

• Conversations supported by short written comments during Capability Tasks will be useful.

• Key comments after the second review, the ‘Red pen day’, as described in section 2.9, page 27, will be useful.

• Identifying clear targets for improvement by helping students use the self-assessment sheets will be useful.

• The portfolio summaries of students’ achievements described in the first part of this chapter give ample evidence for you to report what each student has done, how well they have done it and what they should do to get better.

It has been noted that ‘Teachers are caught up in a culture of diligence. The recording of assessment data has become a burden because teachers do it so well.’** The Nuffield approach to assessment will reduce the burden and allow diligence to be focused so that it is not wearisome.

* Assessment and Classroom Learning, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, Assessment in Education Vol 5. No.l 1998

** Carol Adams, Chief Education Officer, Shropshire County Education Office, in All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education; National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education, DfEE 1999

base of the box.

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5 Looking sideways in the curriculum5.1 How to make links that work

The Nuffield view is that links to other subjects will not happen accidentally. If you want your students to use what they have learned in other subjects, you will need to plan carefully to ensure that this happens. In order to make this a manageable exercise, the Nuffield approach is to identify a Capability Task which is suitable for linking to one particular subject and plan the teaching of this task so that the use of the subject is integral to the success of the designing and making activity. This will almost certainly involve liaison with the teachers of these other subjects. At the most basic level, this is to ensure that the content of the other subject that you may wish to draw on has already been taught. It is worth discussing with colleagues the use you want students to make of this content. It is Important that you do not make conceptual demands that are too high. It is also important to compare vocabularies and develop a consistent approach to the meaning and use of specialist language. During these conversations, it is important to be flexible, to respond positively to suggestions and to take the opportunity to develop a curriculum relationship in which the work in the subjects is co-ordinated at the level of planning across the Key Stage. It is also important that design and technology makes good use of cross-curricular features such as sustainability or key skills. There will be staff at your school who have responsibility for these areas of the curriculum and, as in linking with individual subjects, preliminary conversations with these colleagues are an essential precursor to successful planning and implementation.

Of course, this does not mean that you should not encourage and celebrate the occasions when students spontaneously use other subjects in design and technology.

The rest of this chapter gives examples describing how certain Capability Tasks can be linked to other areas of the curriculum through the way the task is started and ideas generated and developed.

5.2 Linking with sustainability in Year 7 through Novelties Inc.

To introduce the idea of design for the environment or sustainable design, one principle that is useful for students to understand is the ‘Teddy Bear Factor’ that some products have. Designers are now building this TBF into products so that we keep them longer and even like them more when they are old. Examples of this are:

• antique furniture with the ‘patina of age’;

• the Phillips Alessi ‘family of kitchen appliances’, designed to last;

• cars now being built with ten-year anti corrosion system. So we keep our cars longer.

Novelties Inc. is an unusual way to raise students’ awareness of the Teddy Bear Factor, as so many novelties are thrown away and have a short life span. The challenge for students is to think of how, through a simple food product, you could redirect consumer attention to the quality of the novelties on sale in the museum/garden centre/other gift shop. By asking students to design and make a food novelty with the Teddy Bear Factor, you are raising their awareness and challenging them to think creatively about sustainability.

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Starting

Use the ‘show start’ approach to begin the task with two teddy bears, one new and one old. Ask the students, without prompting, to fill in a Venn Diagram.

NewTed OldTed

What is good about new Ted What is good about old Ted

What is good about both Teds

This diagram is the basis for discussion about other products that have or could have the TBF.

Designbrief

Design and make a decorated biscuit that demonstrates the TBF, for sale in large horticultural gardens and stately homes. Its purpose is to launch the ‘Teddy Bear Souvenirs’ range of quality souvenirs. Stately homes and horticultural gardens are trying to move on from teatowels and mugs.

Trappingideas

• As a class activity, using sources from magazines, make a collection of images/products that have TBF. (You can modify SRT 4 Using image boards)

• As a group, students should think about the consequences of people wanting products to last longer. (You can modify SRT 33 Evaluating outcomes – winners and losers)

• As an individual activity every student should draw a sketch of an old Teddy Bear – large postcard size. (Five minutes maximum.) You can display all the sketches and invite votes for ‘biggest TBF’. You can write a list of what is successful: bald, one eye, hairy, moth-eaten, patches.

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5.3 Linking with science in Year 7 through Rainbow Radios

An understanding of the workings of a radio, except at the most basic level, is too advanced for most Year 7 students. They will, of course, get considerable skill, satisfaction and enjoyment from assembling a working radio and this can set the scene for later work in science about the electromagnetic spectrum. The appearance of a radio is also significant and tells us about its status as a product. The Capability Task Rainbow Radios is not intended to teach students about the science underpinning the way a radio works but this does not mean that it cannot be used to link with science.

Starting

Use the ‘talk start’ approach to beginning the task. This involves you in ‘acting’ for three minutes to set the scene. You will need these props – umbrella, plant pot, portable radio and garden fork (small). Switch the radio on in front of the class and pretend to garden. Then say ‘I love to garden listening to the radio. Oh no! It has started to rain, I will have to prop my umbrella over my radio. What a shame my Rainbow Radio could not be a Rainproof Radio.’

This is an opportunity to ask students to think about a product in use. Talk about portable radios and where they are used, why radios are not waterproof and who would use them if they were. You can discuss why damp would affect it and how we keep water out.

You can bring the talk start to a close by asking the class to produce a list of where they could use a radio out of doors. This sets the scene for writing the brief and gives opportunities to develop the range of ideas.

Designbrief

Design and make a rainproof Rainbow Radio suitable for use on a particular outdoor occasion.

Trappingideas

There are two approaches to the task: one is to provide some sort of cover for a radio with a non-waterproof case; the other is to waterproof the case. You can enable your students to explore these two approaches by dividing the class into two groups. Ask the first group to do a quick sketch (large postcard size) of a ‘cover1 for the radio (rather like an umbrella or tent). Ask the second group for ideas on waterproofing an actual radio case (again written on a large postcard).

Display the postcards and ask the class to vote on which they think is the most promising approach.

The result of the vote determines the approach taken by the class to tackling the Capability Task. Whichever approach the class takes to rainproof the radio, there is the opportunity to make explicit links with science in the following ways:

• using information about the properties of materials;

• investigating the waterproofing properties of materials;

• testing the effectiveness of the proposed solutions.

You might even be able to arrange for some of these activities to take place in science lessons.

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5.4 Linking with art and design in Year 8 through Better food

The justification for spending quality time in the art and design field when you are aiming for a new pasta dish is that the visual and tactile stimulation and the process of assembling ideas is a rich stimulus. As cold pasta snacks are a mixture of textures. colours and tastes, they lend themselves to a visual treatment to encourage students to be more extreme in their thinking.

Starting

Use the ‘walk start’ approach to begin the task. Take your class to the nearest supermarket. Explain that they will be looking only at snack meals that are pasta based. For each such snack that they find, they should write answers to the following questions.

• Who would buy it?

• Why would they buy it?

• How much is it?

• Is there an obvious improvement that could be made?

• Is there a surprising ingredient that would capture people’s attention? (What? Jelly Bean pasta?)

Designbrief

Over 95 years Mama Pasta has gone from dried pasta to pasta snack meals sold in chill counters. Design and make an ‘Extreme Pasta’ that takes Mama Pasta into new markets through the use of new ingredients and different appearance. ‘Extreme Pasta’ needs a graphic treatment for the lids. Think wild!

Trappingideas

Give each student a small card box, no more than 15 cm square, with an open top. Tell them that they will decorate each of the inside surfaces of the box with important design ideas and that at the end they will have a set of pigeon holes filled with pasta design ideas.

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The students now decorate the interior of the box to the following scheme:

They can use illustrations, found images, coloured papers, found materials and coloured acetates, words from magazines, IT produced word lists.

Basically, each student ‘papers’ the inside of the small box and uses this to inform decisions about the extremeness of his or her pasta dish. You can assemble all the boxes, either on a wall or free standing, and they can act as a resource to inform students’ design decisions about the extremeness of their pasta dish.

Using dried pasta, each student prepares a square of pasta on a piece of clear plastic to fit inside the base of the box.

5.5 Linking with thinking skills in Year 8 through Carrying

There are three leading areas about Thinking suggested here:

• process of inquiry;

• inference;

• contradiction.

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At the end of the task, you can check on students’ grasp of these by asking each student to complete the following paragraph.

To design and make my cute carrier I was asked to think in three new ways:

• inquiry;

• inference;

• contradiction.

Using ‘inquiry’ helped me to ...

Using ‘inference’ helped me to ...

Using ‘contradiction’ helped me to ...

Starting

1Usingprocessofinquiry

Ask your class what they think these people need to carry around with them:

• a three-year-old boy at nursery;

• a nine-year-old girl;

• a twelve-year-old boy;

• a lollipop lady of 45.

Ask them whether there are any commonalities.

Ask them how they could find out more details.

Set the homework of finding out more and completing this process of inquiry journey.

I didn’t know.............................................

Now I do know ...........................................

What I did to find out .................................

2Usinginference

This requires observation. Organise your class into groups of six and ask them to observe people at busy bus stops on their way to school in the morning. Ask them to note what people carry and what they think is inside the carriers.

Ask them back at school to fill in an inference diagram.

The person was carrying ...

This infers ...

My guess at what is in the carrier is ...

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3Usingcontradiction

Prepare a small collection of sealed carriers with mystery objects inside. Try to make sure the contents are not obvious. For example:

• lunch box with shoe;

• plastic bag with sawdust;

• handbag with knife and fork;

• back pack with oranges.

Organise the students into groups of five or six. One student is chosen to start and knows what is in the container. He or she tells a lie about what it contains. The others have to contradict giving reasons such as: ‘It cant be that because it doesn’t feel heavy enough.’ Everyone should speak.

Although these three exercises are time consuming, they are a powerful way to set the scene for thinking about carrying and carriers.

5.6 Linking with maths in Year 9 through Better weighing

Most secondary school students are expected to carry their books/equipment around with them from class to class. Most bags are carried on one shoulder. There are issues related to posture, bad backs, shoulder strain through carrying a heavy weight in an unbalanced, unsupported way. This task offers an opportunity not only to design and make a simple balance but also to inform students and teachers about the weight of books carried around and to generate some school strategies to counter shoulder strain.

It is proposed that the task is to design and make balances aligned to a health and safety campaign. These shoulder strain detectors will simply show the danger zones of weight. The mathematical potential is five-fold:

• calculations;

• calibration awareness;

• weight tolerances for people;

• variations in load carrying;

• calculating optimum weights for health and safety.

Starting

Use the ‘walk start’ approach to begin the task. Starting this task by walking about gives students an opportunity to notice how people carry their stuff and to start thinking about their school in particular. Walk the students to the nearest shops or similar location and get them to note how/what/when people carry things. Ask each student to make notes on ten people.

Repeat the procedure, making notes on four students each (perhaps in the school playground on three different mornings). Ask to weigh the bag plus contents and identify to which year group the students belong.

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Put the information into a large table that all students can see, or give each student a printed copy of the table. An interesting task for the class is now to see what this sample of information can reveal about what students have to carry to school.

• Is there any difference between different year groups?

• Does the day of the week make any difference?

• Can you explain these differences?

For homework, ask the students to find out the distance they carry their books on journeys to and from school and in moving from lesson to lesson in school. This information can be tabulated and analysed to see what it reveals.

• What variation is there in the distance things are carried on the journey to and from school?

• Do some days require longer time spent carrying than others?

You can also ask students to estimate the time they themselves spend carrying things.

Clearly, there is the opportunity for using ICT to handle and develop this data but simply looking at the tables to find interesting numerical facts is worthwhile in itself. Unless the ICT is managed carefully it can distract students from the basic data analysis.

All these investigations build a picture of the amount and extent of carrying experienced by the students so that they have a sense of carrying so many kilograms in a particular way over time.

Designbrief

To design and construct a simple balance for Year 7, 8 or 9 that shows when schoolbags are too heavy; the ‘too heavy’ weight needs to be agreed through researched information. The students should also be able to suggest ways to reduce the weight carried around school and/or better ways to carry the weight.

Trappingideas

This task involves three subtasks:

1 developing ideas for weighing students bags;

2 developing ideas for raising awareness of safe carrying;

3 developing ideas for lowering the weight of school bags.

Divide the class into three groups, giving the groups one of the following ‘quick annotated sketch’ tasks. These should be made on large postcards.

1 Sketch a possible means of weighing the bags. You can suggest possibilities:

simple beam, lever arm, spring in tension, spring in compression.

2 List ten words about safer carrying.

3 Devise two campaign slogans for lowering schoolbag weights.

This task should take no more than 15 minutes maximum. You can pin up the postcards and use them initially as a basis for class discussion and afterwards as a continual stimulus/reference point.

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6 The ICT dimensionThe Nuffield Project has always taken the view that design and technology provides ample opportunity for using information and communication technology (ICT). All Capability Tasks have an ICT opportunities section and many Resource Tasks have a ‘Doing it the ICT way option

The Programme of Study of the new Orders considers the teaching of ICT to be in four categories:

• finding things out;

• developing ideas and making things happen;

• exchanging and sharing information;

• reviewing; modifying and evaluating work as it progresses.

The way in which you can use the Nuffield approach and materials in meeting the requirements of the new Orders for ICT at Key Stage 3 is described below.

Finding things out

In each Capability Tasks there is a website address which students can use for research purposes. As websites do not necessarily have a long life; there is also a search engine entry which students can use for further and wider research. It will be important for you to discuss with your students how to make good use of search engines and also to encourage them to be sceptical of the information they gain from the web.

Several of the Case Studies and some of the Resource Tasks contain relevant website addresses. It is important that you encourage critical scrutiny.

Developing ideas and making things happen

You can use SRT 28 Modelling with spreadsheets to teach the basics of using a spreadsheet and then encourage students to use this valuable tool whenever they are trying to cost different design proposals.

You can use FRT 9 Costing to enable students to use spreadsheets in costing a recipe.

You can use the Computer Control Resource Tasks to develop expertise in using ICT for control purposes.

Clearly. CAD/CAM (computer-assisted design and computer-assisted manufacture) provide a useful way to develop ideas and make things happen. You can use SRT 27 Modelling with CAD to introduce students to CAD. You can use SRT 26 Using nets to introduce students to CAD/CAM.

All the Capability Tasks which give outcomes in resistant materials or graphic media have the potential for utilising CAD/CAM, and the tasks suggest how you might do this. There are often possibilities for using CAD/CAM in Capability Tasks which use textiles and, where this is appropriate, suggestions are given, for example use of CAD/CAM to develop printing blocks for decorative patterns, or to produce embroidered motifs, as in T-tops.

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Exchanging and sharing information

You can teach students to handle images using ICT through the Strategy Resource Tasks: SRT 9 Choosing and manipulating images SRT 10 Capturing and manipulating images. You can use CRT 11 Presenting food product designs to introduce students to using a digital camera. You can use CRT 9 Presenting textile product designs to introduce students to using a scanner.

There are several Capability Tasks which require students to develop product support information and these provide an ideal opportunity to use ICT to prepare information incorporating diagrams, graphs, images, tables and text, for example ‘Remember your holiday’ cookbook from Hi Quality Tours-

There are exciting prospects for communicating, sharing and exchanging information in design and technology. Remote clients can be kept in touch with the progress of a design brief (see section 3.4, page 33). You can link up with a distant school tackling the same or similar Capability Tasks and use e-mail or a forum on the school website to exchange design ideas. An interesting possibility for each school is to develop design ideas which the other school then manufactures! There are several ways to tackle you make what we’ve designed”. The simplest is to send drawings through the post. A more sophisticated way is to produce the drawings as a file which is e-mailed, printed out and read as plans for making. The most sophisticated way is to produce the information for making as a CAD/CAM file which can be read by the other school’s computer. The design can then be manufactured using a computer-controlled machine: xy-cutter, lathe, mill or sewing machine. If you have the facilities, video conferencing adds immediacy to the activity.

Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses

This requires thinking very similar to that required by students when they consider how well they have done in a Capability Task. So there are excellent opportunities to do this at the end of Capability Tasks as part of students1 self assessment.

Students can fill in a table like the one below.

Table 8 Using ICT in Capability Task

If you used ICT in this Capability Task fill in the following grid.

Did I use ICT ... Yes/No If ‘No’ why not? If ‘Yes’ did it help and if so how?

a for finding things out?

b for developing design ideas?

c for presenting design ideas?

d for presenting other sorts of information?

e for making my design?

f for controlling my design?

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Using time in different ways7.1 Time in the timetable

The Dearing Review indicated a notional minimum of 63 hours of design and technology within Key Stage 3. You may of course, be able to negotiate more time than this. Across a 36-week year this is one and three-quarter hours per week, which is likely to be two double periods per week in many timetables. What is the best way to organise this time so that you and your students can have an enjoyable time and make good progress? There are two main approaches each with benefits and drawbacks.

A divided approach

The time is shared equally between the resistant materials/control elements of design and technology and the food/ textiles elements of design and technology, with each pair of elements receiving one double period per week- So as a block diagram it looks like this.

The teaching of a single class across a year

Resistant materials unit (with teacher A) Control unit (with teacher A)

Food unit (with teacher B) Textiles unit (with teacher B)

The benefit of this approach can be that a single teacher can teach a class continuously across the year for one double period per week, provided the teacher can operate successfully across the paired elements. If this is the case, there is also the advantage that the end point for a Capability Task is flexible as the class will move on to the next Capability Task with the same teacher.

The drawbacks of this approach are: it implies four Capability Tasks in a year; for best effect it requires that teachers operate successfully across the paired elements (which often is not the case); that it divides the department in two (in many cases along gender lines) and will make communication across the department more difficult to sustain.

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A circus approach

The students spend all their lesson for a set period of time working with one teacher on a single unit of work on a particular element of design and technology, say food technology or control technology They then move to another teacher for the next unit of work and so on throughout the year. So as a block diagram it looks like this.

The teaching of a single class across a year

Teaching of Food Teaching of Control Teaching of Textiles

Technology Unit Technology Unit Technology Unit

(With teacher A) (With teacher B) (With teacher C)

The benefits of this approach are that it provides intensity of experience during the unit of work and capitalises on teacher expertise. If the two double periods can be timetabled back to back, then especially good use can be made of the time. It lends itself to three units of work per year, which across the Key Stage provides for breadth, balance and appropriate depth.

The drawbacks of this approach are that three teachers teach students during the year so continuity may be poor, and unless very good records are kept, end-of-year reporting to parents can be difficult.

Note that neither approach will be successful unless a common philosophy and agreement on the broad aims and methods for teaching design and technology underpin the teaching. Neither approach will be successful without on-going communication between the staff about the progress made by students as they move throughout the school year and across the Key Stage.

7.2 Using club time

This can take place during lunch breaks or after school. Some faculties encourage students to come to the design and technology area to work on the Capability Task they are currently tackling in school or on a personal project. It is sometimes useful to restrict certain times to certain year groups, as a completely open house policy can lead to very high demands being put on staff and facilities.

It is possible to combine this broad approach with a more focused one of specific clubs. The nature of the clubs will depend on the interests and expertise of members of staff but even in a small faculty it is possible to run a range of clubs: for example, an electronics club and a fashion club.

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You can also run a Young Engineers Club. There are over 1400 Young Engineers science and technology clubs in the UK network and club activities mainly revolve around specific “live” projects which reflect the breadth of engineering – from medical and safety equipment through to electronic, mechanical, ICT, built-environment and other systems, chemical processes, and audio and textile technologies! Clubs sometimes take part in challenges initiated by major and local companies, and active links with local companies are an important feature of most clubs. Engineering professionals, including the eight-thousand-plus strong network of Neighbourhood Engineers (NEP), work with the students on their projects and clubs often enter regional or national competitions, including the annual Young Engineers for Britain (YEB) competition.

Contacts

Young Engineers Club website: http://www.youngeng.org/

Science and Engineering Ambassadors through your local SETPOINT; and the SETNET website : http://www.setnet.org.uk

General enquiries e-mail: [email protected] tel: 020 7557 6422

7.3 Providing continuous time

Students who tackle a Capability Task as an immersive experience over a continuous period of time (say two or three days) learn a great deal about how to do design and technology. Whilst it is difficult, if not impossible, to use this approach to teach design and technology across an entire year, it is important to provide the opportunity once or twice during a Key Stage. Many schools have end-of- year activity weeks and it is often possible to use some of this time. It is important to prepare the students for the task well before the event and to design the task so that they are able to make best use of what they have already been taught in design and technology and perhaps other subjects. The aim is to ‘hit the ground running’ on the first day. Two features are important in making this activity a success. Students should be organised to work in teams so that the task can be more ambitious than usual because of the division of labour. Use clients who can visit the school and give feedback to the students as they tackle the task to make the experience real. This also enables the teacher to concentrate on helping students to manage themselves as a team and to meet the deadlines. You can select any one of the Capability Tasks from the Teacher’s File and adapt it to meet the needs of an immersive experience over a continuous period of time.

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nuffield design & technology ks3 teacher’s guide · nuffield secondary d&t 3 1the promise...

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